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First time, I heard about him was Worlds 2012, but I didn't care to watch any of his programs, because I didn't follow men's category at all, only ladies and ice dance.

*banging head against wall* :hammer:

I believed in some strange superstitions about male skaters - not being elegant, not having nice spins, and although having 3A/quads, most of them with ugly air positions/landings/long set-ups, etc...But back to Yuzu - I only knew he had medal there but I wasn't interested to see his skate. *If only I could turn back time* :cry:

First time, I watched men's event was Sochi Olympics and I saw his SP and guess what - I immediately fell in love with his skating style and charisma. He had everything that I missed in men's skating...so I've instantly become his fan. And moreover, his skating inspired so much that at the age of 17 I've become an adult skater.

Regarding Fanyu community - first forum I found was Yuzu's FF at GS and it was in november 2014, just right after COC...I lurked there a lot just to catch translations of Japanese news and stay informed... and I liked that community a lot and stayed there until last week, when this planet was created (thanks again) and I migrated.

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I found my way to Yuzuru through YOI. After the anime finished I was looking, if there would be a second season. Thereby I read somewhere that the characters are inspired by real life figure skaters. That made me curious. So I searched some more and found Yuzuru. Then I watch one video of him skating (sadly I can't remember which) and then another and another. And since then I've never stopped.

:space:

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I was starting to follow his career last year before NHK 2016. Thanks to YouTube that recommended me to Yuzu PW Olympic video. I was a fans instantly after watching it. I can't escape from Yuzu charisma and I'm glad to find him exist in this world. :space:

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Wow I thought Sochi season was going to take the lead :omg: tho I do feel Yuzu's fandom gets bigger through the past season :space:

Same. I was expecting Sochi season dominate (myself being one of that wave) but number of relatively new fans is surprising :wtf:

Did not expect that either.

I used to watch FS with my grandma during Olympics sometimes but I didn't really care all that much about it until Vancouver (Johnny's Fallen Angel got me). Still didn't actively follow competitions or anything until Sochi (which I watched live) and that glorious SP that stole my heart :space:

I loosely followed some news about Yuzu over the years but this Season was the first one where I actually paid attention from the beginning and got more into how scoring works etc. so I'm still pretty much a noob :whiteflag:

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In my case, I'd always liked skating, but casually. The "catches it on tv and leaves it on" kinda fan. Then I really got into it for the olympics at Vancouver, joined the old fandom @ LJ communities, the complete shebang. After that, most of my favs started r***ng (Lambiel, Weir), but... there was Javi. I was so happy to see someone from my country fighting his way through the sport, so he made me keep up with everything, keep on learning and getting to know the next generation of skaters. And the more I watched, the more aware I became of others, like the Japanese kid with the amazing 3A :wink:

Then Nice happened, I got suckerpunched by Romeo right in the feels and the rest is history :space:

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I started to follow figure skating more than ten years ago. At the beginning I was a fan of Brian Joubert (I’m French and he was the most popular skater in France at that time).

One day, I don’t remember exactly how, I found a video of a young and talented Japanese figure skater. I was really impressed so I decided to pay a special attention at him for the future. When Yuzu turned senior one year later, he became one of my favorite but he took the first place in my heart only in 2014 after Brian r****ment. Now, there are some young skaters that I love but Yuzu is still my absolute favorite and he will remain. He is the only one who can give me such emotions and i'm really proud to be a fanyu!

(Apologize me for my bad english)

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Over the summer, I was watching like The Cutting Edge or something on youtube, and Yu-na Kim's Vancouver LP came up in the suggested videos, which took me onto Yulia's which took me onto Yuzu's SP at olympics, and here I am :embSwan:

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One of the many post-Sochi fans here! I think it's kind of funny seeing new fans 'defending themselves' from the YOI association because I remember for a couple of days after Sochi loads of people on Tumblr were fangirling over 'that cute Japanese skater boy' and people who were already Yuzu fans got kind of defensive :grin: He is the type we all want to mother though, it's no surprise that people get protective

Sochi was just magnificent though, I originally watched it bc I'd read a skating AU in another fandom and was curious lol I think I had wrongly assumed that all programmes were done to balletic/operatic music so PW was a real surprise for me. Helped that he got a WR so there were loads of photos for me to fall in love with him even more. I spent most of that spring binge-watching videos on Youtube, and when he won worlds I went cheering through the corridors at school :laugh:

I was a pretty useless skating fan though, I only really paid attention to Yuzu (and maybe Javi a bit) and tended to forget about skating until a post on my Tumblr dash in the middle of the season eventually reminded me like 'oh yeah, yuzuru hanyu exists and is amazing how could i forget?' This year though I was excited about YOI coming out, so I was aware of the season earlier than I usually am, and I watched a lot of the events on livestreams which I hadn't done very much before, so I became familiar with more of the skaters, and also familiar with the nerves of watching live :silent:

I'm really glad I did though, it's been a fun if stressful season, and it made that WR FS so much sweeter having watched its various incarnations over NHK, GPF, 4CC etc... :pbow:

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Wow, great to read so many stories of how people came to be fans of Yuzuru! Klera, I wish you safe travels to Pyeongchang for the men's LP!! I know a bunch of other fans are going too, maybe there could be a meet up.

A note about the title though,I know most people use "Fanyu" derogatorily, like Yunab*t or Maob*t. I think "fan of Yuzuru" is also the easiest to understand for those unfamiliar with English. Just a suggestion though!

I picked the word up from the old FF, and thought it's something fans use to refer to themselves :P And indeed the word merging can be confusing. Title changed! Thanks for the suggestion

I think it may have started off negatively, but perhaps it is becoming a more positive word. :thumbup: In any case, thank you for your response! More pink bow power to you too.

himawari said:

Hello everybody, nice to meet you!

I’m part of the long-time fans of our Yuzu.

I started to follow figure skating more than ten years ago. At the beginning I was a fan of Brian Joubert (I’m French and he was the most popular skater in France at that time).

One day, I don’t remember exactly how, I found a video of a young and talented Japanese figure skater. I was really impressed so I decided to pay a special attention at him for the future. When Yuzu turned senior one year later, he became one of my favorite but he took the first place in my heart only in 2014 after Brian r******nt. Now, there are some young skaters that I love but Yuzu is still my absolute favorite and he will remain. He is the only one who can give me such emotions and i'm really proud to be a fanyu!

(Apologize me for my bad english)

himawari, your English is great! We all understand exactly what you're trying to say. I was a fan of Joubert back in the day as well.

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I became a Yuzu fan that season too, but I've been always a figure skating fan. I remember being a little girl and just loving Plushenko (and Joubert, Lambiel and the rest) I only really watched the men and ice dance ( to the 10 years old me the ladies were booooring, so many crossovers! not jumping quads! and the pairs were scary like nothing else :rofl2: ) I followed all the competitions on the tv until my high school got so demanding I had no time - final exams and 5 years of basicly only studying at the university meant I had a very long pause (I completely missed Vancouver and the seasons after it), but after I graduated I had slowly started to find my passions again. So Sochi was on the horizon and I had to check out who is who, right? Then comes the GPF - and me finding the rising star of Japan (and losing countless hours on youtube :grin:) because it was love at first sight :love: or tbh second, because right after the SP I searched for his other programs and found Worlds FS from 2012 - then there was no going back, at the olympics I was already a full-blown fan :embSwan:

I'm actually really really grateful for him, because he drew me back into figure skating like the way I'm now - interested in the technical stuff, fan of other skaters and disciplines ( like the pairs and ladies ) and all around FS nerd acording to friends and family :laugh:

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i've always kind of casually enjoyed figure skating, but it's not exactly the most accessible here. i only ever watched it during the olympics, if i was lucky enough to catch it on TV

but after watching YOI i became interested in knowing more about the sport, because i actually really enjoyed that aspect of the show; this eventually lead me to yuzuru hanyu, whom people kept mentioning in relation to YOI, for reasons that i didn't - and still don't understand - since really, as many of you said, he's very, very different from yuuri. though i find myself quite distant from the YOI fandom nowadays, i can't help but feel greatful towards it, if only because of yuzuru hanyu

i believe i first looked him up in mid-to-late january. my memories are a bit jumbled, but i'm almost certain the first program i watched was LGC

though i would take a while to get used to the music, i really enjoyed the skating itself from the start. but it wasn't until i watched H&L that i truly fell in love with both yuzuru and his skating

which seems rather odd, because in retrospect this isn't a program that's easy to fall in love with, especially when you don't know yuzu that well, but something just clickled with me, and it's still my favourite to this day :bow:

this eventually lead me to checking out his other programs, watching as many videos of him as i could; just desperately trying to make up for lost time :smile:

all the while trying to learn more about figure skating, which i'm still working on but i've definetly gotten a bit better lately. though i must admit, i don't really actively follow any other skaters...

i tend to really hyperfocus when it comes to what i love, and thus i have very little space in my heart for anyone else, though i still thoroughly enjoy watching others skate during competition, including other disciplines, especially the ladies

following yuzuru this season was definetly a wild ride; it was very stressful at times, from worrying over time zones and conflicting schedules that kept me from watching competitions live, to being so concerned over yuzu being so hard on himself after he made mistakes on the short. but all of it was worth it because i got to watch him skate, and that in and of itself was a blessing.

:embSwan:

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My story starts with a minor "trauma" caused by the Boston results :s_crazy: . 2016 Worlds wasn't the first competition I saw Yuzuru in, it was Sochi Olympics, and I wasn't completely new to the figure skating world then, having some - both vivid and vague - memories about various competitions that I had partially watched before Boston. For instance, I somewhat remembered the record-breaking Parisienne Walkways skate from Sochi as well as the not so clean R&J2 (that costume! I was shocked! :smile: ), but it didn't turn me into a fan of Yuzuru or figure skating in general. I believe it wasn't my time yet :)

The time came two years later, when I decided to try and watch the whole competition, i.e. Worlds, for the first time in my life. Ironically, I had to miss Men's SP live but later that day I went on YT to watch the top 10 programs of the event. Yuzuru's performance was the first I came across. It happened to be my very first encounter with Chopin SP and I was absolutely mesmerized by the program and the way a young skater I had barely known anything about interpreted such a complex musical piece. "He's got to win the competition, who could possibly top this level?" I thought to myself. I was too excited by what I had just seen to watch other skaters' performances.

On the day of the free skating I was again too busy to watch the event live. I remember checking out the overall result online and not believing my own eyes... Second place?! I had so many questions...

Looking back at those days of confusion now, I don't have any regrets about getting into the Hanyu fandom and growing to like figure skating. I'm not sure I will continie to follow this sport after Yuzuru quits, but as long as he's in the game, I'm here for him :).

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I have to confess, the first time i saw him skate his SP at the olympics- and was immediately impressed. Since Sasha Cohen r****d, i "forgot" about FS- until sochi 2014. I was watching with my parents and both, me and my mom were impressed (and we both thought he is handsome :s_blush ). The next day we were both rooting for him to win the gold medal :s_drinks